Cutting the Cards May 2014

When you feel you have shuffled long enough, stop and place the cards face down in from of you with the short edge closest to you. Cut the deck as follows:

Grab a number of cards from the pile.

Drop this smaller pile to the left.

Grab a part of this second pile and drop it further to the left.

Regroup the cards into one pile in any fashion.

It’s best to regroup the cards into one quick motion. Don’t try to figure out which pile should go where. Just let your hand move where it will. The cut is an important finishing step that marks the end of the card-arranging stage. Once you have regrouped the cards, the pattern of the reading is fixed, and all that remains is to lay out the cards and see what they reveal.

Another question that comes up is whether to deal the cards face up or face down. Some deal face up as they like to get a feel for the spread as a whole, but some people find it distracting. They feel that they start forming impressions before they have the whole spread dealt. Dealing face down avoids this.